ISU-152 is a tier 8 Heavy Tank Destroyer. One of the Soviet stealth fighters, this beastly machine uses a combination of camouflage and incredible damage per shot to ward of its attackers. A true Beast Killer ™.

Tanks specs:Upgrade tree:Overview:
Relatively low profile, good camouflage, incredible fire power and absolutely no armor for its tier are the defining characteristics of this TD. The only thing that might (notice the might part) bounce on this tank is the gun mantlet. The speed and acceleration are first class when it comes to heavy TDs, but its turning rate is absolutely miserable. The BL-10 is not really all that accurate, though its penetration and damage are almost equal to those of a T10 TD with superb its camouflage.Price: 2,547,000 creditsCamouflage: Very goodGun Depression: -6°/+18°Gun Arc: -8°/+8°

Pros:
- Thе gun hits hard.
- Camouflage is good.
- Speed and acceleration are very good
- AP penetration is the highest in the game.
- Gun mantlet is tough.
- Low profile.Cons:
- Armor is useless.
- Turns like a whale.
- BL-10 seems to have a life of its own… I have to admit its very opinionated for a cannon.
- Horrendous upgrade path.
- Bad gun depression.

Hull:90/75/60
No sloping and very poor thickness means that almost nothing will bounce. Even most tier 5 tanks will penetrate. Only mantlet may bounce tier 7-8 tanks. Side and rear are made of cake.

Suspension:ISU-152 / Max. capacity 48.6 / Turn speed 18 deg per sec
ISU-152M / Max. capacity 54.4 / Turn speed 21 deg per sec
Getting the better suspension is your first priority. Not only does it allow you to use the BL-10, it also slightly compensates the atrocious turn speed of the ISU and upgrades the mobility on soft terrain (still sucks though). Even so, it will still be like a beached whale.

Engine:V-11 - 600 h.p. - 15% chance of fire
V-2-54IS – 700 h.p. – 12 % chance of fire
Getting the better engine will make a real difference to your mobility. It’s a grade A engine and will help you unlocking the rest of the Soviet tech tree. You can use it on the Object 704.

Radio:10RK – Range 440 meters
12RT – Range 625 meters
The stock radio is pretty crappy and I suggest upgrading to the 12RT.

Gun:152 mm ML-20
Bad gun, but it’s your best choice for you until the BL-10 or BL-9s. Poor accuracy, slow reload and pretty pathetic AP penetration means you will be forced to use HE almost all the time. But at least you will always deal damage and break modules.

122mm guns
Though good on the SU-152, they are outclassed on tier 8. No reason to use them, as they will have a hard time with most tier 8 tanks.

122mm BL-9s
A pretty good gun, however its very expensive to research and pales in comparison to the BL-10. Good enough penetration for all tier 8 and 9 tanks. With aim it can take on tier 10 vehicles. Only real use in unlocking it is for the other TD line. It will make the grind there not as bad

152.4 mm BL-10RoF: 3,41
Penetration: 286/329/90
Average damage: 750/750/950
Accuracy (100m): 0,41
Aim time: 3,4
The real deal and the reason why ISU is so feared. It causes extreme damage and its penetration is insane. With gold rounds it has the second highest penetration in the game (after the JagdTiger) and can practically auto aim tier 10 tanks. The powerful HE shell means that even the Maus tank can feel threatened, no matter the slope or distance. On the other hand, even this powerful gun has flaws. It aims so slowly, you might think it does it on purpose. Although decent, the accuracy is not that good and the RoF means that missing is a luxury you don’t want to afford. Another great “feature” is that this gun has a mind of its own. I’m serious…
Premium ammo is APCR, which loses penetration with distance but gets a normalization bonus against sloped armour.

Comparison with its peers:ISU-152 vs Uralmash 1
The ISU has less armor, is slower and overall bigger.

ISU-152 vs Ferdinand
The Ferdinand has armor that is very capable of bouncing, unlike the ISU. It also has a much more accurate and fast firing gun and seems to behave more agile. The ISU-152 has better damage and penetration, therefore a bigger threat to tier 10 tanks. Its also faster in a straight line than the ferdi.In short:
Ferdi is more accurate and fires faster
ISU has better camo
Ferdi has better armor and hull down ability
ISU has better damage per shot and penetration

ISU-152 vs T28
T28 is a lot more armored than the ISU. Its also MUCH slower. It carries a faster and more accurate gun, however lacks the damage and penetration. Both have good camo, though ISU is better in this category.In short:
ISU is much faster than T28
T28 is a lot more armored
Both have awesome guns, but the BL-10 is just better

Historical Object ISU-152:
ISU-152 was a Soviet multirole fully enclosed and armored self-propelled gun developed and used during World War II, with a subsequent use, mainly in the Soviet military, till the 1970s.
The initial variant, developed in 1943. The factory designation was Object 241 (Объект 241). It was armed with the 152.4 mm ML-20S (МЛ-20С) gun-howitzer, with a barrel length of over 4.2 meters (27.9 calibers). The self-propelled gun carried 21 rounds of two piece (shell and charge) armor-piercing and high explosive ammunition. The gun had a maximum range of 6,200 meters.
In historical battles, it usually has the 152mm howitzer. Its capable of dealing extreme damage to most normal vehicles and can deal limited damage to JagdTigers and King Tigers. It should be guarded well.

I have been grinding the Soviet TD line for some time now and I have made it to the ISU-152 a few days ago. I would like to share my thoughts with anyone who is curious about what the ISU-152 is all about.

Let me just start by saying that I do not have any experience in fighting as a member of a Clan. All of my experience is from Random Battles. I have fought only two games as a member of a Platoon because to be honest with you I did not even know that it was possible to team up with "friends" and fight in Random Battles as a Platoon http://forum.worldof...ile_sceptic.gif ! So this may have some bearing on my comments below.

The first thing to realise is that the ISU-152 is NOT the pleasure that either the SU-85 / SU-100 were or even to some extent that the SU-152 was!! Prepare yourself for this disappointment and you will deal with the emotional toll on your confidence.

The ISU-152 is a Tier 8 TD and because of this you will be in combat with a variety of different tanks:

The absolute worst is when you find yourself at the top of the Squadron listing as one of the most powerful tanks for your team. Why you might ask? Aren't I the most powerful tank on the field with my BL-10 / BL-9?? In some respects, yes. You will be able to deal major damage to any unfortunate enemy tanks that are foolish enough to drive within your visual range. Of course I have had such games where it is like shooting ducks in a row but those are rather rare. The most common situation is that you find yourself with a team filled with less powerful Heavies and Meds then the other team due to your placement at the top of the order of battle for your team. So already the other team has some advantage over you: more DPM on average as a squad especially if you have the slow firing BL-10. Often in this situation your team mates will be less experienced drivers and often will NOT realise the secret for sucess will be Scouting and Spotting for their Major asset: you in your ISU-152. As you well know most people in Random Battles are not much for organized team play and will probably rush off like lemmings leaving you trailing them at too far a distance to help until the battle is already upon them. I can not count how many times I have cajoled, pleaded, instructed my squad mates to not go beyond that line of buildings where I can not help them or worse rushing to the end of the map and into the jaws of death within the anvil of the enemy hammer. Your lack of mobility will kill you in these battles as you try to bring yourself closer to the action. You turn like a WHALE even with the upgraded suspension, crew, and add-ons. Your gun has almost no gun traverse (an obvious NERF from hell this is!!) so you will be turning and grinding yourself into the ground as the little meds from the enemy locate you, find you, fix you in place, and decimate you from the rear as they outflank you because you put yourself so far forward trying to help your team. If, and this is a BIG IF, you had some real armor to protect you then this would be a non-issue. But, always remember your ISU-152 has armor like tissue paper and very rarely bounces anything!!! Overall effect for this: A loss and a bad feeling inside.....

The best is when you are at the middle or bottom of your Squadron listing. These will be the types of battles that you were designed for and where the BL-10 will really shine!!! You will find yourself smiling as you are blasting the turret off of a E-100 at 500 m with your overpowering HE or blasting a hole through the front glacis of that cresting IS-7! Oh the Joy of it all.... if only all battles were like that when you fight on Random. Your team will be more experienced in these types of battles and will rarely go off rushing to their doom. Often you will find that your Meds are actively spotting for you and calling out targets for you to blast into oblivion. Or you will find yourself as the Gatekeeper to your base and stop the enemy dead in their tracks as they approach your base with a well placed shot with your BL-10. Nothing and I mean nothing stops a enemy heavy rushing your base when they suddenly find they have gone from full health down to less then 30% with one shot from you! You hiding in the shadows lurking... them thinking where the hell is that ISU?? And then BOOM!! Another shot takes them to Valhalla! Those are the games that make this all worthwhile. Of course, not all is heavenly bliss in the strange world of the BL-10......!

The BL-10 is a living beast with a mind of its own. When it wants to it will take the game off. Yes, I meant that. There will be games where you will be actively cursing it! You play one map where at 300 m you somehow blow that rushing T-50-2 away with one shot! Your team will congratulate you for your amazing shot. But then the next map you will have something else happen. You line up your Cannon of Doom on that E-75 at 150 - 200 m. Careful now, aiming reticle is on target, dispersion is good, tank settled, you breathe in as you squeeze off the shot and WTF!?!?> What the hell happened!!! I was aiming for the side of the turret!! How the F**K did I get a "DING" de-tracking critical?? ARGH!!! The sheer amount of De-Tracking criticals that you will cause are enough to turn your hair grey from stress. I am that serious. I have never ever had this happen to me as often with any other gun that I have used before. I do not know what is the issue here, but something is not right with the way the game counts your hits on the enemy tank for you to receive so many of these. Of course, it is not really a huge percentage of times, but it is enough to ruin your whole weekend after you get a few of these. And yes, the gun picks the worst moment to do it just when you are counting on it to take out the T-30 that has spotted you! Or, same situation, and you get "Critical Hit!" but 0% DMG another WTF moment. Or even more amazing and unblieveable you line up that MAUS lumbering toward your positions and you switch to HE for the world of hurt that it can bring to the front of the MAUS and (yes, this is beyond belief but it is TRUE!) you aim, fire, and WTF!!!! You get instead of damage you get the report "Failed to penetrate enemy armor!" How the hell is that possible when I fired a HE shell at him... Now mind you this has happened to me only twice but it is enough in all the battles I have fought worth it to mention because it is those times that you question your sanity for even bothering to play this game at all!!!!

So to sum up, you are not strong enough as far as armor and mobility to really duke it out in a dogfight toe to toe with any tank of tier V - VI or higher unless you get the first shot in and it is a good one. You can not depend on your armor in these situations. Forget fighting in the cities or towns because you must bring too much of your front around the corner to square up your target because your gun has next to nothing as far as gun traverse. I have watched some videos of earlier versions of WOT and it seems that both the ISU-152 and the Object 704 used to have a lot more gun traverse which meant that it used to be possible to shoot around corners while exposing just a little bit of your front. It seems somewhere along the way that has changed. This has nerfed the ISU-152 into a fire support role and not a heavy hammer to break through the enemy wall in the town. I could live with the poor hull traverse if I had just had another 20 degrees of gun traverse but I guess it is just not to be, at least not right now as of 0.6.7.

The ISU-152 has absolutely killed my Win / Loss ratio. It is so tough to actually Win when you are fighting in this tank. You will get your kills and experience for sure. I have nothing to complain about that. It is just that you are not capable single handedly in winning the game all by yourself: paper armor, lack of agility, slow ROF and strange aiming/DMG with your only positive thing in the ISU and its BL-10. This is totally opposite from my beloved SU-85 with the 107. Oh the beautiful memories I have once I upgraded my SU-85 with the 107 and all other upgrades. Now that was a joy!! I have single handedly won games with that tank. My most beautiful memory of my SU-85: 9 kills, Defender, Invader, Top Gun, Sniper, Reaper, Master Gunner, Sharpshooter, etc... and mega XP all on one map! But I digress. Let's keep on topic with the ISU-152.

I have taken a bit of a break with the Soviet TD's and am now believe it or not trying the Artillery line just to see how the artillery side functions and I must tell you it is a real eye opener. Now I can see how they can "see" and shoot. I will return to the Soviet TD's to finish my Object 704 grind later on perhaps after the upcoming 0.7 update to see if they have done something to address some of the weaknesses of the ISU. Until then good luck and good hunting!! If you have any questions or would like to chat a bit about the Soviet TD's I am always willing to help and talk about them or anything else WOT.

I recently got the object and i sold the ISU the second i was finished grinding and there is no way i am ever going to buy it again. Out of all soviet TDs from tier 5 and higher (i skipped the first three) i enjoyed the ISU least and it made me rage more often than any other tank (except for maybe the jagdtiger, but thats another story).
That beeing said, the ISU is definitely NOT a bad tank and i was fairly successful with it, it is just a tank that was not a lot of fun for me. I think the best way to describe it is: inconsistent. Every shot and decision you make is a gamble, especially with the bl 10 and it is hard to predict anything with this tank. One shot you can penetrate an e-100 frontally from 200m meters away and the next shot you ding on a su-14 from 20m away or land a 0% critical on its tracks and get killed. Of course you have good and bad and some crazy shots on every vehicle, but with none of the tanks i have played was it as bad as with the ISU. I can accept that the ISU has no armor, the least amount of hp of all tier 8 and really bad mobility, but the inconsistency of this tank is what made me hate it.

It also took me a bit of trying to find out how to play the ISU and here is what worked best for me: Although the ISU is very fragile and has bad mobility, i was most successfull when i played rather aggressively. I am not talking about mindless rushing into the enemy, but trying to follow a group of heavies and stay close to the frontline. My goal was just to deliver 3 penetrating hits before dying. Your damage output is your biggest strength and while 3 hits does not sound much, it is the equivalent of one destroyed tier 9 heavy! You gun is not accurate or reliable enough for sniping, so imo there is no point in staying behind and get to fire a few shots on random enemies from which 50% will miss or do no damage. If you play save and stay behind, you are wasting your potential, that is doing massive damage to the biggest enemies. Staying alive should not be the highest priority in the ISU; get to where the fighting is, try to land a few well placed shots on the highest tier enemy you can find before dying and you are the most usefull to your team.
Strangely after i started playing the ISU pretty aggressive and lead more than one attack, my survival rate went up! Offense is the best defense and at least for me that is absoluetely true with this tank. Of course you still have to use your brain, simply rushing head on into the enemy won't get you anywhere and if an attack is bound to fail from the beginning, then don't do it.

After looking at my stats on the ISU and Ferdinand, i would say the ISU is well balanced as a tier 8 TD. Average damage per battle is ~1,950 on the ISU and a bit less on the ferdi, average experience per battle is nearly the same on both. Win ratio is slightly higher on the ferdi (60% ferdi, 54% isu), hit and survival ratios are nearly the same. The main difference for me is: the ferdi is a great joy to play and the ISU is not. Can't say anything about the t28 since i never played it.

tl;dr: The ISU is a well balanced, very capable tank, but it is hard to enjoy and will pobably make you rage a lot.
(also, it is worth the grind, since the object is a huge improvement)

I've hated the ISU. Object is twice as good. Don't bother with this one, its not a moneymaker as I first thought. You die very fast and the camo is not that good (once you fire with the BL-10 everybody sees you). Also arty will usually 1-shoot you because you have no armor. It's very hard to shoot moving targets because it has horrible turning rate, small gun traverse and B-10 is not as accurate as the one on the Object.

Seems people have many diffrent opinions of this TD. Let me add my impressions.

i played it with the stockgun. it was frustrating, it was paper thin, it was underpowered.
it was a grind and a plague with both the stock and the 122 from the previous tier. mostly becuse things were
so often so well armoured in the battles it got into add to this that the isu is a shell magnet. everybody who
sees it will react as if it was free food.

ThenThe era of bl-10:

Started off with my first battle i got boeler and reaper 5. top gun and sniper.

suddenly this TD came alive. the alfa damage of the bl-10 can punch holes in just about anything. A new concept
started to come into mind.

Firepower is Armour.

How so? people seeing you come around with your freakishly large gun will often scrambel to retreat and if they are
oblivious of what a bl-10 is when you come they usaly panic when they get hit and see almost half thier hp disspear.
both these effects reduce the amout of shots that will be hitting you if you are the agressor. But always rember that
a good wall or a stone to hide while reloading is the real armour

So in short it kicks ass in my hands with the bl-10. im raising my avarage exp on it to decent levels att the moment from the dark stock times.

Tactics the short version:

Open maps

here you run the same tactics as the su and the stock isu. your a third line TD as long as they have enough firepower
to take you out if you show up. Becuse you have paper armour for your tier so people will stop shooting att your friends and kill you
so stay invisable. With your bl-10 you can get oppertunistic shots that will devestate. later if you see that theres not a lot of arty left
and mostly small chewable tanks on the other team go agressive becuse you one shot everything if your lucky.

City maps

here is were one can shine. If you run balls out agression you might get rewarded. shock and awe is usely the way to go. agress. blast them.
hide around a corner and reload while they are still peeing themselves. Agress again blast another. if they start forming defence. relocate
to a new position maybe flanking your previous targets your fast enough to do it especially on tarmac. if your hp gets low you can always flank
targets distracted by your team and hide.

Tho there is a note of causion that really can be attached to most tanks. make sure your flanks are free or defended. You can not win if they
surround and all keeping you alive is your armour.

I used BL-9 to grind BL-10 (just because the stock gun made me sick).
Not good enough. It's an ok gun, but ISU is a piece of crap, so standing still to deliver your damage is impossible, and its alpha is not good enough. Accuracy is higher, but pen lower, basically, you'll land less % damaging shots than with BL-10.
Once I unlocked BL-10, ISU's real face showed up to my enemies.
BL-10 is hell on earth !!!!!!!
Stop complaining about this excellent TD !
Basically, for me, it's one of the hardest vehicle to play, as no error will be forgiven. But you have the biggest damage output one can imagine.

About equipment, I use Binos, a must in open maps, as you have to snipe. Ok, BL-10's accuracy is not good, but pen is. So, you'll hit less, but penetrate all the time.
I also use vent, personnal choice, I like having more of everything.
And GLD. ISU's 3 sec of aiming are too dangerous for your paper armor. The fastest you target, the fastest you're out to reload and lurk to your next prey.

The Object 704 is a huge improvement on the ISU-152. Two main reasons:

Armour

Hit points

In the ISU, you get off a few shots, doing a fair bit of damage, and then die. Your armour can be penetrated by just about anything. You have 90mm of frontal armour, the same as a T-44's frontal hull armour. You only have 1,010 HP, about the same as a T-43, a Tier 7 medium, so it doesn't take too many shots to take you out.

The Object has 120mm of frontal armour, a 33% increase, and 1,600 of HP, a 58% increase. The armour is more angled too. Basically this means that, even though you have the same uber-gun, on average you last a lot longer in battle. This means more damage, more kills, more influence on the battle.

Of course, in the Object you land up in higher tier battles, though in the ISU you're often in pretty powerful company anyway.

The interesting, and often very entertaining, difference between the two is the way they are treated by enemy tanks. The Object gets a huge amount of respect from the enemy. Enemy tanks fall over themselves trying to get out of the Object's sights (and rightly so: the BL-10 is something to be afraid of). The ISU is a lot less feared, probably because the enemy are never sure whether you have the BL-10 or not, or just don't know that the ISU can have such a powerful gun.

The surprise factor makes the ISU bearable, and occasionally very entertaining. It is very amusing to one-shot cocky mediums. Even more amusing is when they then call you a hack / cheat / other choice phrases.

Yesterday I finnaly researched Object ... and last game with ISU was: 10 destroyed tanks ... bl-10 is just awesome ... and I red somewhere here, that you are not able snipe with bl-10? sorry mate, learn to aim

Nope, it's exactly the same gun. However, as mentioned in my post above, with the Object at least if the BL-10 does one of its random misses or bounces, you're probably going to get a second chance. With the ISU, the armour is so thin and the HP so low, you can't afford to miss.

I wonder though where you got your camouflage values from. Whilst playing this TD I never once felt like I had good camouflage, in fact my game play evolved so much because of this that I changed my load out and positioning to accommodate it. I removed my normal vent+rammer+camo and went with vent+optics+bino so I could sit as far back as possible to "snipe" (<--use that loosely with the BL-10). I felt as soon as I was even half way close to the front line I would be spotted even in well positioned hiding spots.